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Lotschental Valley from Wiler
The view up the valley from Wiler up to the glacier Langgletsher at the valley end. The Pass at the end leads to the huge Grosser Aletschgletscher (or Big Glacier of the Aletsch) What a day! Superb is all we can say.
Acting on Bruno and Gertrud’s recommendation we headed for the Lotschental Valley which is on the north side of the Rhone Valley. Unfortunately we hadn’t checked the timetable for the trains so we didn’t get there until midday after changing trains at Interlaken and Speiz. You get off the train at Goppenstein after going through the long Lotschberg tunnel from Kandersteg before the rail heads down to Brig in the Rhone Valley. From Goppenstein there is a connecting Post Bus right up the valley. We got off at Wiler and got the Seilbahn (cable car) up to Lauchernalp to the high alpine trail. This trail runs up the valley at the 2000m level before dropping down to the road at the top end of the valley.
The Lotschental Valley is just lovely. On the other side from the trail there are no less than 8 glaciers coming off peaks around the 4000m level. Below are pretty little hamlets with small very old farm buildings grouped together. They look like shelters for animals, feed sheds and perhaps for cheese storage. Some are perched up on flat rocks upon smaller ones (to
Top end of Lotschenberg valley
View of ice cap/snow field and stream prevent vermin) and others have schist slab roofs. Other buildings in the hamlets up the valley look like holiday chalets for the Swissies. Given the lack of English, I’d say that this valley is one frequented more by the Swiss than the tourists. It is certainly not in the well known tourist spots and is one of the loveliest valleys we’ve visited.
The valley is also known for it’s churches, chapels and shrines of which there are almost 60 in the valley. They form part of the Pilgrims Way or trail if one wishes to visit them all. They are mostly old, rustic and very small.
If viewing all the opposite glaciers wasn’t enough, at the end of the valley is the large Langgletscher (long glacier?) and the snow field/ice cap of the Petersgrat which runs along the ridge as a thick covering ice blanket. From both of these are rocky streams. It is a truly lovely spectacle. It appears that there are numerous other trails at the end of the valley which we could be tempted to experience if time permits.
The day, as always is completed with the usual long journey home which takes over 2 hours.
On approaching Grindelwald in the train I saw an old man sprawled on a lawn at the back of a house. He was facing down hill and one leg appeared to be twitching. He looked like he’d had a fall or a turn of some sort but we couldn’t check because it was next to the rail track. I called into the rail office and reported it and the lady there said she would send a colleague to check it out. On the way up the hill to the house we saw the train head slowly down the hill to check. When we arrived at the house we heard and saw the ambulance going to the location. Hopefully, I was able to help or maybe even save this person’s life by reporting what I saw. It’s amazing that a whole train full of people had not seen or at least reported seeing the man.
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